SHARP FINED $100K FOR HOSPITAL MISHAP

Patient, 73, fractured back in fall from surgical table in 2012

The California Department of Public Health has fined Sharp HealthCare $100,000 after a patient fell from a surgical table and fractured her back.

The patient, a 73-year-old woman, was admitted to Sharp Memorial Hospital on an unspecified date in 2012 with complaints of abdominal pain, according to the department.

Her fall occurred while a doctor, who was not identified by the state, attempted to insert a catheter in her arm to aid in the administration of medication.

Sharp said in a short statement that it has added new training since the fall and has had no similar incidents since 2012.

The fine is one of 10 handed down across the state last week to hospitals that put patients in immediate jeopardy of injury or death.

It was the fifth administrative penalty for Sharp Memorial, which was last fined in 2013 — also for $100,000 — for removing the wrong kidney from an Escondido man, leaving him on dialysis for the rest of his life.

According to the state’s eight-page report on the most recent incident, the patient had been bedridden at a local care facility for three years before being admitted and was morbidly obese.

Investigators found that special straps were not used to secure the patient to the table, with one nurse stating that “the straps would not fit around her girth.”

The investigation concluded that the procedure should have been conducted in the hospital’s bariatric room, where equipment would have been able to accommodate the patient.

Sharp said in its statement that it purchased new straps “to accommodate patients with high body mass index” for use in its interventional radiology lab, where catheters are regularly inserted.

The fall caused the woman to undergo a risky spinal fusion surgery after the fall fractured her eighth thoracic vertebrae.

The surgery was successful. The patient was discharged to a long-term care facility last year, but the report does not include an update on her condition.

Sharp Memorial was the only San Diego County hospital listed in the latest batch of fines by the department.